Five Reasons Undead Are Great

[@chrisragner3882]

I had a mansion with a winery built on the ruins of a monastery. The vineyard was still maintained long after the monastic order ended. I went with an “Aliens” feel with heavy rain, difficult terrain and hindered visibility. Poltergeist reminiscent: built over sacred burial grounds! 😅. The dark forces began from the murder of elderly owners and their servants over twenty years before. The ghosts of the owners were good, but most the rest were not, they were cursed. The land corrupted by a creature that feeds off the life energy. The grapevines were even corrupted. The grapes were even infused with a form of necromancy that made wine similar to that which was inspired by the show True Blood.

[@DDHomebrew]

I love the idea of cursed grapevines! And I think a "micro-climate" area like your describing with the howling Alien planet is very cool as well. It would certainly freak out the players!

[@shadomain7918]

Great video. I have a Druid in my current campaign whose leaned into necromantic spells at higher levels, using Animate Dead to create allies. She's now coming into conflict withe members of the community (City of Ptolus) that view necromancy as absolutely evil. This is because there's a view that the world of Ptolus is a prison created by the creator God and the only escape is death, so raising dead is conflicting with the God. It's getting interesting

[@DDHomebrew]

It's such a fundamental aspect of existence (or it's ending) that it's great for creating conflicts.

[@carlosvillanueva8530]

Great video, as usual, that is why I always set aside a few minutes Saturday morning to catch this week's video. In my world undead can be of any alignment, because humanoids are all different alignments. My original party died in what was a TPK, so they started new characters. Five or more years on, realizing that things stayed where they were dropped they decided to go and get the gear they lost in the TPK game. I made them research, then have others research, then they had to go into the abyss, collect favors, and finally they the ended up at the gate that opened up to the cave where the previous party had died. But they could not pass because of the Lawful good Lich, the two Celestial Dreadnaughts Paladins, Sacred Specter Neutral Good Cleric, who guarded the gate from the other side. Because they had fallen while guarding the gate, they were assigned to guard the gate forever. So, the items they had gone after were still in use by previous party in their "unlife". (It would have been worth it if they could have gotten the treasure, I had been a Montey Hall DM)

[@DDHomebrew]

Whenever you have a TPK it's always has that unfinished business aspect: no one was left to clean things up! You guys figured a way through that!

[@carlosvillanueva8530]

@@DDHomebrew That was just a happy side effect of what I was doing. I was stopping them from getting their hands on "the Items of the El`Dar," sets of relic/artifact level magic items, left around my world by proto Godling-Elves, who rivaled the Dragons in power, and fought against the Evil dragons in the Dragon's Dawn War. It would've destroyed game balance again. What I loved most was that every character had gotten something different out of the encounter. Stories for another day.

[@DDHomebrew]

@@carlosvillanueva8530 artifact items are fun to create, but deadly for players to have in their hands.

[@carlosvillanueva8530]

@@DDHomebrew Oh, I agree, I was 13, in 10th grade, high school, and the year was 1981 or 1982, and we had all just discovered Elric of Melniboné and had been playing D&D at lunch recess for about half a year. please forgive me for handing out relics and artifacts like they were M&Ms in AD&D. The 1e books were new too. I've learned a lot over the last 40+ years. Magic always belongs to someone, it is never free.

[@DDHomebrew]

@@carlosvillanueva8530 And that history is what makes it special, not just it's game mechanic effects.

[@ShaneKennedy-gt8nl]

Thank you

[@DDHomebrew]

I hope it helps your game!

[@michaelwest4325]

My theory is that undead are "magical", being animated by dark wizardry, ghosts are the clerical side of undead being trapped by divine forces or magic, the ghouls and such are monsters, and a vampire is essentially unique rather than common, akin to Strahd, a one off villian. Rather than throw them around as mere mooks or fodder I restrict them to thematic encounters, with something behond their presence that is deeper story and villiany. My opinion is a less common usage gives them more impact and in numbers or with the level drain damage they are real horrors!

[@DDHomebrew]

I like the idea that something so opposed to the natural order would only arise out of some extraordinary occurance. So each strain of undead could be traced back to some especially evil event or force which was unleashed on the material plane.

[@krispalermo8133]

Undead, .. a.) Classic GrayHawk adventure " Hall of the Lizard King." Unknow warlord took control of the swamp lizardmen, " use orc stats." Plot twist it is a vampire, ok now here is the problem with adventure part size and level as written. Not Enough to Deal with the Threats. Other than debating which polearms are period accurate, switch out man catchers with military folks, and move with units of 20troopers, still aspect to take heavy loses. This is late 1980's, happily we had a big extended family with many junior high school cousins, and our local stretch of road countryside had national guard drills. So we had around 40 people playing the game as written, and retreat survivors had the maps that went deeper into the caverns under the swamp. This is not a one-night play through, it is a freaking mini campaign. Monster combo, trolls, wights, and ghouls. At that time with D&D rules only magic +1 could hit undead, or silver weapons. If weapon is unenchanted, do they just pass through wights/ghouls like ghost or do the weapons bounce ? Can you tackle ghouls/wights ? Wights, two hit level drain and PC dead despite their total Hp. Hence military folk/ man catchers to keep the undead at bay as you one tap their heads with silver picks. Ghouls paralyze PC and trolls drag them off to be drown in under water pounds in different locations. After medieval fantasy play through of the first six levels, god there were a lot of levels. The .. adults/ national guardsmen. along with a few c0ps argue about modern weapons and how body armor soak up bullet hits resulting in broken bones. Then we used Rift rules from TMNT for firearms and vest. Ghouls just blind side punch you around a corner with a taser, then drag you off. At that time we all knew what PCP did to you even if a police officer had a 9mm pistol. COPS tv show at the time had many shows of officers in panic after unloading a full mag into PCP user and that guy was wrestling all over the officer. ( .. stay away from people having a bad trip ..) We just replace the undead with hype up PCP +C users as a cannibal cult. We had tabletop, which was played in our bedroom floor with too many people. Three rooms of my grandparents' house full of guardsmen and my grandparents' generation of veterans. We had larp foam & wooden practice weapon, and rubber band pistols & riffle .. paint blast wasn't out yet in our area. So we had around thirty junior high schoolers, and a few hundred adults playing soldier/ doing drills around my grandparents' house, corn fields, and back ravine woods/ mid light forest with a lot of under growth to trip in and play Hide & Seek.. We had to have both houses very clean and tidy for visitors, old big farmhouse to practice military raids in. The grown men .. screams .. were well, legendary to say the least. As for the K9 units looking for given items, there was plenty of dog & human urine to clean up afterwards. The laughing Chucky doll rope rising up after checking behind a door was priceless. At any given time we forgot what we put up in the drop ceiling to fall out/down on who moves the panels. Just move one item and six mouse traps will go off tossing something across the room. Flying fake mouse, for some reason She didn't think it was funny. Draw cord baby doll the says, " Hug Me," done up like a zombie. We had about a good six years' worth of my grandparents haunted house.

[@DDHomebrew]

That's an amazing story! Can only imagine what the neighbors thought!

[@krispalermo8133]

@@DDHomebrew Nearest neighbors lived a thousand ft away, by the place was next to a small golf coarse. At the country club, gofers were politely asked not to stare at the guardsmen's trying to practice their hide drills. random golfer, " I can still see you." Children from the swimming pool, " We all can still see you."

[@DDHomebrew]

@@krispalermo8133 Amazing!

[@krispalermo8133]

Old mine turn into a necropolis. Evil cleric or mage cast Bestow Curse on party members to Flee the Light. Go into detail over light blindness and headaches on top of your eyebrows messing with your reasoning. So three spell, one middle Blindness but has partial short range sight in the dark. Two other spells of one for Int and another for Wis. Monster of the mine tunnels, my game shop dealt with Call of Cthulhu fear & madness checks along with combat/environment stress exhaustion temporary ability score damage. Running in a blind maze circle with a Bugbear or small ogre trying to cut you off. There is muscle lactic acid buildup. So after every near miss from the monster n/PCs take 1d4 temp Str dmg. The Bugbear/ogre is just cover for when the Shadows feed off the PCs. PC curse to fear & flee the light bearers, .. lawful good clerics & paladins. Slowly turn the PCs into Shadows. In WotC 3e shadows had low int/wis but cha to cast 1st level sorcerer spells and being self-aware. Being neutral/ chaotic evil in undead nature. They stalk neutral evil n/pc to Str feed on, Ce they just what to beat the bully to death. Flee from Lg or protection spells. Normal everyday neutrals/good folk that aren't jerks to others, they just sadly want/need someone to reach out to. Then feel loneliness depression just to sit in a dark corner alone. 2.) A couple of weeks in real time over six to eight days of play with a dozen players running PC through the same dungeon at the same time. With WoD vampire larp, other than storyteller/GM, it is the players voice acting creating the game. There is No you can or can't because of the rules, it is roll/ role for it. Paladine & cleric with Speak with Dead spell to talk with all the mines shadows/ ghost to get them a proper burial. Plot twist, some of the PC stay as shadows and low level ghost. But there are multiple game systems to play ghost.

[@DDHomebrew]

Lots of stuff going on there: you would have to have some very committed players to make it work!

[@krispalermo8133]

@@DDHomebrew It is called, .. Role .. playing. Problem with horror, the players are safe and not connected to their PCs. PCs are not .. insert self .. power fantasy. Besides how do you role play poisons if you never seen or been yourself punking drunk and getting lost in your own apartment ? I .. F-CKING ..Know what a bad reaction in spider bites and wasp stings can do to some people. Hornets, hornets are special.

[@archersfriend5900]

5e wrecked most undead. Love the undead from older editions.

[@DDHomebrew]

They were fun. And very deadly!

[@raff3486]

What a great timing. I was trying to find inspiration for undead & KR releases a video about undead! Great video. Also here's a tad of lore for one of my settings. Death itself didn't exist in this universe, as it was simply about the energy of yourselves returning to the universe's cosmological essence. However, after a Human that had sacrificed himself so that he could slay the Dark Lord, he had realised the truth of the universe, felt hatred towards not only the gods, but the Mother of Life itself & returned back to the living as the first Deity of Death/Undead to revise a plan & become the second Dark Lord, that would elavate his power within the Divine Hierarchy through a dark ritual.

[@DDHomebrew]

Always cool to create your own origin stories. And it is curious that the gods would allow undead to roam the earth, since they are presumed to have ultimate say over life and death.

[@raff3486]

​@@DDHomebrewYes, but basically what would be the Ao of this setting has decided that each living being has the right to become a deity if they can survive the transformation, which usually ends in death, but because the Ao of the world is dead, the God of Death was able to rise into the Divine, because i don't like all knowing gods. 😂

[@DDHomebrew]

@@raff3486 when you have a polytheistic setting I've never understood having any that are truly all knowing. They would hide stuff frome each other!

[@morrigankasa570]

I disagree with making all Undead evil/cruel. I think it's better along with other common enemies to make it so there is a variety of morality/alignments amongst them. When there is that variety it can make things more interesting. As for Undead specifically, I have created 12 different Lvl 1 Characters in case I found a regular group. Of the 12 characters, 4 are more directly connected to Death/Undeath with another 4 being possibly connected to Undeath with some homebrew/technicality tweaks. Additionally, I think ALL CLASSES should have at least 1 Sub-Class that is connected to Undeath/Undead. The 4 that are directly connected are. 1. A Chaotic Neutral Female Shadar-Kai Acolyte background Undying Warlock whose Patron is Larloch. 2. A Chaotic Neutral Female Drow Feylost background Death Domain Cleric sworn to the Raven Queen. 3. A Chaotic Neutral Male Mountain Dwarf Runecarver background Wizard planning School of Necromancy. 4. A Chaotic Neutral Female High Elf Gate Warden background Druid planning Circle of Spores. As for the other 4 that could technically be connected. 1. A Chaotic Neutral Female Summer Eladrin Hermit background Monk planning Way of the Long Death. 2. A Chaotic Neutral Male Forest Gnome Outlander background Bard planning College of Lore. 3. A Chaotic Neutral Female High Elf Sage background Ranger planning Drakewarden. 4. A Chaotic Neutral Female Astral Elf Anthropologist background Paladin planning Oath of Conquest. Finally, in real life I personally don't fear Death/Dying. Rather I fear dying & being forgotten or dying without being married/having descendants or dying in a slow painful way or dying without leaving any sort of imoact on the world. Nor do I find graveyards creepy/scary, rather I find them peaceful and/or sad. As for abandoned buildings most often I find them sad.

[@DDHomebrew]

These are cool sub-classes, and I can get with some undead not being "evil" as much as neutral. But most undead monsters are either violently opposed to life and want to destroy it or take it as nourishment, or they are cursed in some way and often unhappy about it. Still, it is possible that if undead are a real thing in the world than they might evolve into "functioning" personages that engage the world in a less antagonistic way.

[@morrigankasa570]

@@DDHomebrew My Mountain Dwarf Wizard for example, he wants to achieve Apotheosis/Immortality somehow so he can be an Eternal Guardian of his people. So theoretically that may end up being Lichdom, as the only way to achieve that Immortality. Another example could be a Player Character becoming a Vampire to similarly guide or protect people eternally. Yet another example could be Guardian/Protective Ghosts that don't want to harm good people, like imagine an Oath of Devotion Paladin dying and coming back as a Ghost. Another great idea could be a Bard Ghost who died but came back to continually Play/Perform Music for everyone or a Wise Old Matriarch of a family who always wanted to be around for her descendants to guide them & provide wisdom. But each there own ideas or takes on Undead.

[@DDHomebrew]

@@morrigankasa570 like the guardian of the holy chalice in Raiders of the Ark 3.

[@Marcus-ki1en]

As you said, it is because they are almost universally evil and the antithesis of life. I played with a twisted DM who threw zombie children at the party, as well as vampire youth (think "the Lost Boys"). He seemed to take great delight in our early reluctance to slaughtering them. It was interesting how some of the player's moral reluctance to eliminate youth caused problems within the characters in the party.

[@DDHomebrew]

I used mummy children once and ran into the same issue with my players.

[@morrigankasa570]

If the party had a Necromancy Wizard or Undying Warlock then things would've been extra interesting. The Undead would have mostly not bothered the Undying Warlock so that player wouldn't likely bother with them. As for the Necromancy Wizard they could have taken over control of the Undead (depending on their player level and the Undead's level/intelligence) sending them back to their resting places and not bother anyone else.

[@Marcus-ki1en]

@@morrigankasa570 True now, but remember I played back in the olden days when we used wax tablets and dice made from ivory (AD&D 1E) ; P